[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 46 (Monday, April 18, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S3815]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        WORLD WAR II REMEMBRANCE

 Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise today to share with you a 
remarkable story from World War II and the remembrance shown by our 
friends in Germany.
  Lindlar, Germany a small town outside of Cologne, is honoring the 
memory of an American war hero who lost his life during WWII. First 
Lieutenant Victor Rutkowski was a 24 year old, B-17 co-pilot assigned 
to the 390th Bombardment Group stationed in England. Lindlar will be 
dedicating a monument to Victor's memory and holding a memorial service 
to honor him this weekend.
  Doug Johnson was the pilot of the B-17 during Victor's last mission. 
The following is his account of that final mission.
  Oct 15, 1944: My 35th and final mission started about like most of 
the others we had flown during the previous few months. Two of our 
earlier missions had extended all the way from England, over Germany 
landing in Russia for a short stay. Leaving Russia and bombing in 
Poland and Rumania before proceeding on to Italy for a couple days 
before our final leg back into Framlingham, England. But this time we 
were going on a relatively short mission to Cologne, Germany. We were 
to fly the lead position, high element of ``B'' squadron. Take off went 
according to schedule and we were airborne at about 0534. Climb out and 
assembly was simply routine. We reached the IP and turned toward the 
target area. No enemy fighters were sighted and it looked like the flak 
was going to be light and inaccurate. Hey, this was going to be a piece 
of cake.
  Just before bombs away the flak became moderate and their gunners 
were beginning to home in on us. Suddenly we received a burst right 
under the right wing. We lost number 4 engine and Victor Rutkowski, my 
co-pilot, feathered it immediately then informed me that number three 
engine was on fire. Now things were beginning to get pretty tense. We 
attempted to extinguish the fire with no success and it's about time 
for bombs away. We continued and dropped our bombs in the target area. 
We notified the squadron leader and immediately pulled away from the 
formation. I called out on the intercom that ``we had better get out of 
here before this plane blows up''. Things looked pretty bad. I called 
back later to the crew but got no answer because all of them except the 
co-pilot, engineer and myself had already bailed out.
  The fire continued in number 3 engine so the engineer bailed out and 
Victor followed him. I climbed down to bail out but decided to take one 
last look at number 3. The fire appeared to have gone out. The plane 
was in a slight dive as I climbed back into the seat. Upon returning 
the plane to level flight I noticed that the fire re appeared. I then 
put the plane in a fairly steep dive. I remember saying to myself 
``come on baby we've gotten this far, don't blow up on me now''. The 
fire blew out shortly thereafter. My luck was still holding.
  I was down to about 4000 feet by now and found myself flying through 
some more flak, and small arms fire. I didn't realize at the time that 
I was flying directly over the ground fighting between our troops and 
the Germans somewhere north of Aachen. I really did not know who was 
shooting at me then but luckily I was out of it in a minute or so. I 
finally contacted a P-47 fighter pilot in the area who led me into St. 
Trond, Belgium, Site A92, where the landing was not the best I had ever 
made. A flat right tire that had been shot out by flak didn't help. 
After exiting the plane and walking around to inspect the damage, I 
noticed that the tail gunner was still at his post. A flak burst had 
killed him. The plane had about 200 holes in it and the fuel was still 
leaking from the number 3 engine. I still can't figure out why that 
plane didn't blow up.
  I later learned that my co pilot was killed on the ground by German 
civilians and that my bombardier had been wounded but evaded and my 
engineer also escaped capture and returned to base. The rest of my crew 
spent the balance of the war as POWs.
  A truly remarkable story that speaks vividly to the sacrifice 
soldiers such as Victor made fighting for their countries.
  I would like to commend the citizens of Lindlar for honoring the 
memory of Victor Rutkowski and all those who died during in WorId War 
II. I would like to add the thanks of the Rutkowski family and the 
United States Senate to Lindlar for this special tribute.

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